As soon as I heard that Daybreak was going to be opening a new EverQuest progression server this summer, I decided that I would dedicate some time to playing it. I didn’t start playing EverQuest until after POK released, so there nostalgia factors that I never experienced. I wanted to help test, the smoother the experience is at release the better, so I patched up the beta client and was met with – old character graphics. This made me smile. These were not the character graphics when I was playing, and it’s odd to think of them making anyone smile this day in age, but there they were. They’re horrible, and it’s fantastic.

The starter zones are packed with people. There’s no beginner armor quests so you have to ignore the dialect from most of the NPC. One thing they have added is the ability to swap to another instance of your zone if there are too many people there (around 50+). You can do this by using the /pickzone zone # command. So for example /pickzone gfay 2 will open a window with a selection of instances to choose from. I did this on my dark elf enchanter, Blesse (pictured above) and ended up in a zone with no one else.

The beta allows players to buff their characters in order to test things like expansion unlocks. Kunark unlocked yesterday afternoon, all of the raid mobs finally defeated. The base game, ‘EverQuest’ doesn’t have a whole lot of quests. Killing is slow depending on what class you’re looking to play. Right now the server is open to anyone, but eventually you’ll need all access to play – which I have to admit, I’m a fan of. Even on the beta server there are people running around with 5+ boxed accounts. I have been debating whether or not I want to box myself, I used to when I was playing on Drinal not so long ago, but I haven’t decided yet. Some days I just like to play and not have to focus on more than one character.

Of course because it’s beta everyone is pretty much doing their own thing. Ideally I’d like to meet up with a social guild, and join others in their adventures. I’m not sure if there’s a central place for people to advertise that stuff, so if anyone else hears anything, let me know.

It took me about an hour to ding level 2 in Nektulos forest. I died a few times when guards couldn’t reach me in time, and I collected 10 or so of the adventure stones that are going to allow players to ‘earn’ rewards when progression goes live, for helping with the beta. I’m unsure what those rewards are yet. All in all, I’m still very excited to begin these adventures. I’m not a huge fan of the beta because of the buff command, but I understand why it’s important to test everything.